Chapter 224 - The Trial

The trial began under the watchful eyes of the public. The weather on the day of the trial was fine, neither cold nor hot. Hearing that the “Australians” were going to hold a trial, people from all the surrounding villages, as well as workers and clerks who were off duty, flocked to the commercial building. The ground floor of this building housed the East Gate Market Summary Court, where the case was to be tried. The courtroom was small, decorated in a modern style, but the public gallery only had a mere sixty seats. To accommodate more people, Li Mei had arranged for many long benches to be placed in the central and rear aisles as additional seating.

Even so, the crowd grew larger and larger from early in the morning. According to Mu Min’s estimate, by 8 a.m., the number of people gathered at the entrance of the commercial building to listen to the trial had exceeded one thousand, and more were still arriving. It was estimated that eventually, three thousand people would gather near the commercial building.

Only a handful of people could get seats. All tickets were available for free at the entrance of the commercial building, but those who wanted a ticket had to show their identification and leave their number. To prevent any commotion, at Mu Min’s request, the East Gate Market’s garrison company and battalion headquarters were all on high alert. Police station personnel canceled their leave and were all on duty. The military industrial department rushed to prepare a large number of pepper spray tear gas canisters for the garrison company, and the internal and external personnel of the Political Security Bureau were also out in full force, acting as plainclothes officers mixed in with the crowd.

The Emergency Response Headquarters for Unexpected Incidents was set up on the second floor of the East Gate Market police station, in a special observation room. The heads of the judicial, police, political security departments, and the military were all there, ready to respond to any unforeseen events at any time.

The trial had not yet begun, but seeing the crowd slowly gathering on the street, an uneasy atmosphere began to spread among the Elders in the response headquarters. It seemed that too many people had come! The crowd had already congested East Gate Avenue in front of the commercial building and the police station, and the police had to intervene to maintain order.

Most of the Elders at the response headquarters had never seen such a spectacle. They could no longer sit on the rattan sofas and loudly discuss whether the new marriage law should be monogamy, polygamy, or monogamy with concubines. Li Mei was particularly uneasy. She was deeply afraid that a riot would break out and ruin the market. The incident a few days ago where a sailor beating his wife on the street had led to a brawl between the Army and Navy had already caused significant property and business losses for East Gate Market. Although the Army and Navy had compensated for the losses, it still made this business elite’s heart pound with fear. Business people feared riots the most. When a riot breaks out, the first to suffer are the shops.

“Should we have the garrison battalion come in to maintain order? With so many people, could there be a stampede?”

“No need. The garrison battalion standing guard outside is enough,” Mu Min said confidently. “Their crisp uniforms, just by standing there, have a great deterrent effect. Don’t worry, this situation is currently very normal, with no signs of being out of control.”

“There are so many people, and there are no more than 100 with tickets. What about the others?” Ma Jia was a little worried.

“No problem, we have a wired broadcast. We’ll just do a live broadcast.”

To ensure that as many people as possible could hear the trial, Ding Ding had a microphone installed in the courtroom. The line was connected to the broadcast network system that had already been set up on the streets of East Gate Market. This way, even on the street, people could hear the entire trial process. To help the naturalized citizens understand the background information, Zhang Yu was also called in to provide commentary for the broadcast.

The crowd was guided to the loudspeakers scattered throughout the streets, where they could stand and listen to the entire trial. Those with a little more money occupied teahouses, restaurants, and small eateries according to their financial means, ordering a pot of tea and comfortably listening to the spectacle. As for the crowd sitting or standing on the streets, sidewalks, and open ground, there were also vendors to take care of them.

“Cigarettes! Melon seeds! Dried sweet potatoes!”

“Soda! Kombucha!”

“Dried octopus from Bopu, one bite and you’ll want another!”

“Rent a small stool! Listen to the trial in comfort!”

…

Several police officers at the entrance of the courtroom checked the tickets and identification of everyone with a ticket, ensuring that each seat was registered to a specific person. With 30 minutes to go before the trial began, the public gallery was already packed, and many people were sweating profusely. All the windows were opened, partly for ventilation and partly to prevent those climbing on the windows from breaking the glass. A row of police cadets from the police training class stood shoulder to shoulder against the wall of the courtroom, glaring intently at the packed public gallery.

At nearly 9 o’clock, a police officer shouted loudly, “Please be quiet! Extinguish your cigarettes! All rise!” With a clatter of moving benches, Presiding Judge Xu Ke entered from a door behind the bench.

Xu Ke was wearing a newly tailored judicial robe. The robe was of the English style, pure black, with a seated figure of a Bì’àn on the chest. He wore a black Song-dynasty-style long-footed futou hat, creating a blend of Chinese and Western styles that looked imposing and majestic. The common people were immediately impressed, and some even went weak at the knees and knelt down.

Xu Ke held a huge, black leather-bound law book with the words “Law of Ao-Song” stamped in gold, fully displaying the legal dignity he represented.

With a solemn expression, Xu Ke ascended to the judge’s seat at the highest point. Seeing everyone looking at him, he felt a little proud. Being a judge felt pretty good. The only thing was that he wasn’t used to the swaying feeling of the strange long-footed futou hat. Xu Ke picked up the small gavel and struck it down, then in a long, low tone, he called for silence in the courtroom: “The court is now in session!”

Next, the unfortunate young man was brought into the courtroom by the police and stood in the defendant’s dock. His identity was verified according to procedure. The first murmur of discussion rose from the public gallery. People were surprised that the “adulterer and adulteress” in this case did not appear together. And the most important “husband” was also absent. Many were even disappointed—after all, adultery trials had always been entertaining for the common people. Now, only one “adulterer” was present.

According to the litigation process, the district prosecutor spoke first. An Xi was a little shaky when he stood up from the prosecutor’s seat—probably due to nervousness. Xu Ke knew that this person’s professional level was “abysmal.” He couldn’t even memorize many basic legal articles. Several people in the Law Society said that this person claimed to have a law degree, but he looked more like a lazy adult law undergraduate. If it weren’t for his tireless running around for Ma Jia and his great contributions to the Law Society, the Law Society probably wouldn’t have accepted him at all.

Despite reading from a script, An Xi’s speech was still halting. He first described the entire case, including the fact of the adultery, and presented the transcripts of the confessions of all parties. The transcripts were read out one by one by the clerk. The first was the suspect’s own confession. At first, people found this kind of interrogation a bit boring, but after hearing the detailed confession transcript, many became interested again—such private content was always very attractive. Finally, An Xi presented the party concerned’s own confession, admitting that she had committed adultery with the suspect.

He then asked the suspect if he had any objections to the confession that had just been read.

The suspect said he had none. The prosecution then began to call witnesses, including several villagers from Meiyang Village and the party concerned’s colleagues from the shop. They all provided relevant circumstantial evidence.

“…My statement is complete. Thank you, Your Honor.” An Xi wiped the sweat from his forehead. Although he was just reading the prosecution materials according to the procedure, it had still made him very nervous.

Xu Ke then announced a recess—it was already almost noon. The people in the public gallery began to disperse, many of them discussing among themselves. Few were discussing the case itself. What was discussed the most was the trial process, including the large number of confessions, testimonies, and circumstantial evidence, which seemed much more civilized than the old yamen trials—there were no ferocious yamen runners, and no exciting scenes of torture. The lack of these things made the trial a bit boring, but the detailed descriptions composed of numerous confessions and testimonies generated a different kind of interest.

Li Mei had already arranged for the cooperative restaurant to make a large number of boxed lunches to be sold around the commercial building. They were sold out quickly, making a small profit for the cooperative. Of course, the business of the surrounding restaurants and eateries was also booming.

The court reconvened at 12 o’clock. In the eyes of the transmigrator group, the lunch break from 11:30 to 13:00 in the old world was a waste of time. In their work schedule, the lunch break ended at 12 o’clock.

The case was actually over at this point, but the defense process still had to be gone through. This was also the part that the audience was most interested in. It was the first time they had heard that a person was allowed to be defended in court. In the past, it was only a matter of whether the prisoner confessed or not. So everyone wanted to see what the Australian’s defense was like.

Ji Xin’s defense was a plea for a lighter sentence. After all, the suspect had already confessed, and the case was already decided. He didn’t need to pull any other stunts.

He focused on the suspect’s family situation, talking about his family’s unfortunate experiences. Of course, the cause of his two older brothers’ deaths was omitted to avoid giving a bad impression of industrialization. Then he called several witnesses to show that the suspect had always been “honest and well-behaved” in the village, had never done anything harmful, and had certainly not molested women. The reason for this “undermining of a military marriage” was mainly because he was too poor to get married and was young, which led to this accidental misstep. He also pointed out that in the development of the adulterous relationship, the female party concerned also bore some responsibility.

Ji Xin’s words were gentle and his reasoning was sound. His performance in court was ten times better than An Xi’s. The atmosphere in the public gallery clearly showed great sympathy for the suspect. Xu Ke thought to himself, if this case were decided by a jury, his performance alone would be enough to move them.